Internet Filters – The Whole Home Solution

This is part 2 in a series.

By Edward Allison

As discussed in Part 1, we as parents should be deeply involved in the education and empowerment of our kids. We should be the ones setting standards and instructing our kids about sex. Don’t leave it up to the internet, they won’t find much truth there. So as a backup to our own choices it is a good idea to use Internet filters.

When it comes to filtering and monitoring internet content there are 3 points of connection to concentrate on. The first is where the internet first gets into the home, the router. The router is the box thingy that splits the internet signal from the internet service provider’s (ISP) modem making it possible for all your devices to connect to the internet. Sometimes the modem and router are built into one device that your ISP provides for you. Most of these connections now a days are done wirelessly via WiFi, but there are usually a few devices hard wired directly to the router.

You can set up a filter at this router level so every device that connects to it has some filtering performed. One of my favorites is OpenDNS.com. They are a company that offers free filtering to families by routing all the internet traffic through their servers which are set up to filter pornographic content. Now, I will say that I am a pretty proficient “computer guy” and needed go through the setup a few times to get it to work as I wanted. For the less technically able folks they offer a paid subscription which offers support and assistance with the setup. They also have a great forum where other users offer suggestions and opportunities to help make the service better. I really like them.

For those who don’t want to be bothered with delving into the ugly world of router configuration Pandorashope.com offers a plug and play router that is preconfigured to rout traffic through their filtered servers. I have a few friends that use them and have loved the support and reliability that they have gotten from them. They are another great choice and worth looking into.

It is important to understand that using this kind of filter is important because every device like the tablets, computers, game consoles, and everything else will be filtered. But remember that smart phones and tablets from your cellular company that are internet enabled will NOT be filtered using this method, because they can bypass the router. Also, no filter is perfect. There are going to be some sites that will get through, so it is important that you continue to educate your kids about making their own choices about what to look at. That is where true EMPOWERMENT comes from.

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